Saturday, March 01, 2008

Pets are a lot like babies. They can't tell you what the fuck is wrong with them, you actually have to pay attention.

Now, not to say Aaron and I have divided our duties into gender-specific roles, but Aaron and I have pretty much split up our responsibilities into gender-specific roles. He takes out the trash, I cook. He mows and takes care of the yard, I paint the house. He doesn't pick up his shit, I throw it in the trash.

You know, the way it's suppose to be in today's society.

So when we got Tuckie the Turtle last year, Aaron was all "well, I've had LOTS of pets and I know how to take care of aquariums" and I was all "whatever, dude."

So it pretty much came to pass that Aaron took over the majority of Tuckie's care. That is, of course, until he went on a business trip. I'd get super-involved and clean the tank (and when I say "clean the tank" I mean "CLEAN THE TANK AND SCRUB IT UNTIL IT SHINED LIKE A SPARKLEY DIAMOND") and when Aaron would come home I'd slowly relinquish the responsibility to Aaron with a lot of hurt feelings.

Over the past few months, there's been an algae bloom in Tuckie's habitat. Aaron decided it would be a good idea to get a goldfish for Tuckie to munch on after it ate some of the algae. Now, I've been bitching and moaning about this damn algae bloom since before Christmas and Aaron's been "handling it" so I've tried to not be psycho but when Aaron left on his business trip Monday and I began full-time care of Tuckie I realized the God damn algae bloom was on him.

As in, the turtle was covered in algae.

I also noticed he hadn't been basking and that's another cause of concern. So, I forced him (yes, I said "forced") him to bask for a day. Then I had a conversation with Aaron about it... long story short, we came to an agreement of changes. Both of us were concerned about Tuckie's health.

Being all scientific and stuff, we decided to get Tuckie a new habitat in the same size and material he was in but to get him a different basking thingy.

First, Tuckie gets removed from the habitat. He misses his water, but appreciates the algae drying out on his shell.

This is his old habitat. See the rock? Yeah, he shouldn't have had a rock. Also, you may not be able to see the goldfish but that fucker is big enough to fry for dinner.

In Tuckie's new habitat, I placed a new piece of wood (specially for aquariums), rinsed his old floating plant thingy and filled it with spring water.

Then, Tuckie jumped in.

Now, turtles are really crabby little bastards. Especially Tuckie.

But he sure as hell isn't acting crabby here.

Tuckie loves his new wood, and will even climb out. I haven't seen Tuckie on his rock in weeks. Now, I will say last night Tuckie got himself stuck trying to jump into the water between the wood and habitat. His face was in the water and his butt was in the air. Good thing I saw it and rescued him, he could of drowned.

And, of course, he gave me the evil eye for helping him out. Just like a toddler, little brat.

21 comments:

I loved this post. It's kind of like we are living parallel lives with our turtles. We had to get a filter for our Zelda. Red eared sliders like to be warm too. Since we got her a heater she's more than doubled in size! I posted about my turtle yesterday if you want to see her. I'm glad that you made Tuckie so happy! Good job Mama!

Do you have to keep Tuckie warm? Our turtle was only $12.00. Everything else we needed for her was in the hundreds! I've heard that they can live 95 years too. I will have to leave her to the kids in my will!! Have a great weekend and thanks for the comment.

I love that Tuckie says YO. I say yo to Tuckie as well. Love the photos. So, is he not supposed to have a fish? Will the fish stay in the old habitat? I have so many unanswered questions but I guess Tuckie will be ok?

There's a lot of things we should be doing for Tuckie that we aren't -- like heat lamps and special UV rays. We keep our home at a pretty consistent temperature all year due to our allergies -- 72 or 73 during the day and 68 at night -- which is also the perfect temperature for the turtle. Plus, since he's an aquatic turtle the water and varying deepness of the water helps him regulate his body temperature to what he wants it.

Tuckie can have fish and has been known to eat fish. I've bought him tiny baby feeder fish which he would occasionally eat. Aaron bought freshly hatched some-type-of-fish-i don't-remember-the-name and both Tuckie and the goldfish ate those but the pet store won't sell them to us as feed since they are suppose to be pets.

As for the goldfish, I thought it was a little big for Tuckie to eat but Aaron thought it would be a good experiment. NO. All that damn thing did was drown crickets, eat flightless fruit flies and majorly fowl up the water. The Damn Goldfish currently resides in the old habitat. When the weather warms up, Aaron will move it outside and then a neighborhood cat can eat it. It will be a deserving death.

As for Tuckie being okay, yes -- already he's doing so much better. We were never too worried because at no point did her lose his appetite.

Since the algae is starting to dry up, he's losing his shell plates, this will be the third time it's happened (it also happens with growth spurts). It looks like he is also beginning to shed his skin and that will be the second time. These are signs he's doing better, even though he's not very active and happy when they happen.

And yes, like lizards, turtles will sometimes eat their shed skin and plates. It's kinda gross and kinda cool all at the same time.

You saved him!!! he looks so happy. Years ago I "adopted" a turtle at the aquarium and named him Lucas. We visit him about once a year when we take the kids. We don't really know which turtle is Lucas, but I always point to the cutest one, and no, no one knows we "adopted" him except my husband who likes to tell me I'm nuts.

Andrew and I split stuff along gender roles, too. Except somehow I'm the one that doesn't put my shit away and he's the one that throws it out. I guess that makes up for the fact that I have to work. ;)